APPLICANT RESOURCES

Clear Admit Interview Guides
Be as prepared as possible for your MBA interviews this season with the Clear Admit Interview Guides! School-specific sample questions and in-depth strategy, campus visit details and places to stay.

Clear Admit School Guides
Seventeen titles available! Understand how the leading programs compare and learn more about the MBA experience in and beyond the classroom through Clear Admit School Guides. As featured in the Economist.

Essay Topic Analysis
Below are links to our comments on some of the top programs' essay topics for the 2007-2008 admissions season.
The Career Goals Essay
Berkeley / Haas
Chicago GSB
CMU / Tepper *
Columbia
Cornell / Johnson
Dartmouth / Tuck
Duke / Fuqua
Harvard
IESE *
INSEAD
London Business School
MIT / Sloan
Michigan / Ross
Northwestern / Kellogg
NYU / Stern
Oxford / Said *
Penn / Wharton
Stanford GSB
UCLA / Anderson
UNC / Kenan-Flagler
UT Austin / McCombs *
UVA / Darden
Yale SOM
* denotes last year's commentary

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• School: Berkeley / Haas
• School: Cambridge
• School: Chicago
• School: CMU / Tepper
• School: Columbia
• School: Cornell / Johnson
• School: Dartmouth / Tuck
• School: Duke / Fuqua
• School: Emory / Goizueta
• School: ESADE
• School: Georgetown
• School: Harvard
• School: IE
• School: IESE
• School: IMD
• School: INSEAD
• School: ISB
• School: London Business School
• School: Michigan / Ross
• School: MIT / Sloan
• School: Northwestern / Kellogg
• School: NYU Stern
• School: Oxford
• School: Penn / Wharton
• School: Stanford
• School: UCLA / Anderson
• School: UNC / Kenan Flagler
• School: UT Austin / McCombs
• School: Virginia / Darden
• School: Yale
• Trivia Tuesday
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School Rankings
Rankings are a good way to start your research on various MBA Programs. Keep in mind each uses a different methodology.
Business Week
Economist
Financial Times
Forbes
USNews
Wall Street Journal

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Friday, May 09, 2008

Clear Admit’s Best of Blogging Awards Featured in the Times

Earlier this week, the Times’ Carly Chynoweth devoted an entry on her careers blog, Snakes & Ladders, to last week’s release of the Clear Admit Best of Blogging (BoB) Awards. Chynoweth, who graciously agreed to be one of the celebrity judges for this year’s contest, praised the BoB Awards for helping interested readers quickly find their way to the best blogs by current MBA students and applicants.

A Google search for MBA blogs serves up 272,000 hits, wrote Chynoweth, but thanks to the BoB Awards, there’s “no need to read them all.” In her blog post, Chynoweth gave a special shout out to July Dream, who took first place for best applicant blog; VidiViciVeni, who won the title of most entertaining applicant blog; and m@, who pulled off a clean sweep of three categories: top student blog, most entertaining student blog and best single post by a student (in a tie with Maybe MBA).

Perhaps not surprisingly, BoB winners themselves called attention to their victories in posts on their own blogs, thanking Clear Admit, their readers, their parents, fellow bloggers, the judges, the Academy and others for recognizing their contributions.

“THANK YOU TO ALL!!!” wrote July Dream. “I can’t explain what a great community this has been to not only lend me a hand when I’m overwhelmed, but also to share our experiences, our lives and a bit of ourselves,” she continued.

VidiViciVeni, too, expressed overwhelming gratitude for his award, poking fun at himself for sounding like he was accepting an Oscar. Always the entertainer, he quipped, “Shouldn’t the “Most Entertaining Blog” win the entertainment device?” We’ll take that under advisement. (The top applicant and student bloggers this year got to choose between an iPod Touch or an Amazon.com gift certificate, while the runners up got their pick of a subscription to either the Economist or BusinessWeek.)

In case you missed the awards, you can view them all here. Thanks again to all the participants, as well as to Chynoweth and the other celebrity judges, for making this year’s competition a success!

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome back to Fridays from the Frontline, our weekly recap of the whirlwind of activity in the MBA blogosphere. With the school year coming to a close and the application season finally winding down, both students and applicants are reflecting on their journeys so far. Let’s check in and see what they have to say…

Current student La Laudiaria returned with a flurry of activity this week chronicling the bittersweet end of her Wharton career. After struggling to the finish line, she got us all up to speed, sharing accounts of Wharton’s prom and how she and her fellow Follies writers were ambushed into playing what is, perhaps, the most electrifying drinking game ever. MBAGladiator is also preparing to wrap up his tenure at Yale SOM by planning trips up and down the eastern seaboard for the coming weekends and squeezing in a paper and an exam before it’s all said and done. John is also planning to travel prior to his graduation from Columbia; his plans carry him south of the border to Puerto Rico with fellow CBS students for the last time. John, like Rubeo Boy from NYU’s Stern school, is struggling with finding a job before graduation, but each are sure that their elite educations will provide them with ample opportunity! Finally, also traveling this week was Wim De Bruyne, en route from Singapore, where she had a unique opportunity to enjoy the jewels of southeast Asia, back to Fontainebleau to finish her last session of INSEAD before graduation. Best of luck to you, Wim!

Anand took some time out this week to help correct a few misconceptions about the rigors of Darden’s schedule. While he confirmed that the first two terms at Darden are remarkably strenuous, with class and associated preparation consuming 36% of his time - more than he dedicated to sleep - in the fourth quarter, that dropped to a more reasonable 19%, allowing ample time to party. HairTwirler wrapped up her first year at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business at the beginning of May and hasn’t looked back since. She has a busy summer ahead leading into a challenging second year schedule. ChennaitoChicago clues us in on life at Kellogg, running through the many great opportunities provided through Kellogg’s alumni network. He helped with the MBC Conference, which featured a keynote address by Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, and he took a class in which industry executives gave students an unparalleled educational experience! m@ posted from Jamaica where his work with the Blue Mountain Project brought him into direct contact with the people he was trying to help, and really helped bring his Ross School of Business experience full circle. He also put out a post-BoB invitation to submit blog topic requests, so start sending those emails! CS@HBS was surprised to get a look at her blog visitor demographics, in spite of Harvard Business School’s international appeal. Meanwhile, MaybeMBA bemoans her clustered midterms at Chicago GSB, with three of four held over two days, and revisits her list of 22 MBA pros and cons one year later. Also in Chicago, GSBSutras shares the top four reasons to look forward to taking a class on the third floor of the Chicago GSB’s Gleacher Center.

Turning our attention to applicant-bloggers, this week, Agent-C celebrates the completion of the hangar of which he oversaw construction and reflects on the the business school application process. He warns people not to get too swept up in school rankings and to focus on what schools best fit your wants and needs, which can only be done by knowing oneself. He also gives his impressions of campus visits to six top schools and shares his thoughts on the GMAT. Meanwhile, TinyDancer is having a yard sale to prepare to move and, unfortunately, the modest profit won’t go far to financing her Wharton MBA; Eight Schools is really feeling some sticker shock in calculating what it will cost to complete the Tuck MBA and cope with the price of living in Hanvoer. In closing, we would like to extend our condolences to Dreamer, whose GMAT journey ended in disappointment, but who excelled on the CATs and plans to start at the Indian Institute of Management. Best of luck!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  Tune in next week for another action-packed edition of Fridays From the Frontline…. 

Thursday, May 08, 2008

HEC Paris School of Management, Sciences-Po Launch New Corporate and Public Management Dual Degree

The HEC Paris School of Management has launched a new dual degree program with the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, better known as “Sciences-Po,” according to a recent report in the Economist. Students who complete the program, which will begin in September, will earn a dual degree in management science and public administration, the equivalent of a master’s degree from each school.

The program is built on the view held by both HEC and Sciences-Po that private sector management and public policy are growing increasingly intertwined. The first half of the three-year program will be taught in French, and the second half will be taught in English. Students will be required to complete two internships, one in each the public and private sector.

As with HEC’s other dual degree programs, graduates benefit from the alumni networks from each school. Admissions are managed independently, and students must be admitted by both programs in order to qualify.

In addition to this new dual degree with Sciences-Po, HEC also offers cross-disciplinary joint degrees (MBA + master’s) with the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the London School of Economics. HEC also offers dual degrees (HEC MBA + other MBA) with the Stern School of Business at New York University, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico, Universidad Torcuato di Tella (UTDT) Buenos Aires, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC), Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and SEM - Tsinghua University Beijing.

To learn more about the new HEC/Sciences-Po dual master’s program in public and corporate management, click here. To learn more about HEC’s other dual degree programs, click here.

Admissions Tip: Considering the Campus

Continuing our series of admissions tips geared towards those individuals who are just beginning to think about their MBA applications, we wanted to offer some advice on factors to consider with respect to a school’s facilities and location. Whether speaking with current students or touring the campus for oneself, it’s helpful to approach these information-gathering experiences with as clear a sense of what matters to you as possible. Here are a few broad categories to consider:

1) Facilities - Are state of the art classrooms and impressive new architecture a priority for you? Would you prefer a school that is headquartered in a single building to one spread over a larger campus? What about wireless access and use of technology in teaching? If any of these factors are of significant importance and could tip the balance between schools on your list of target programs, you’ll want to do this sort of research up front. If visiting yourself, we’d recommend that you take pictures (note the contrast between a Wharton lecture hall and an MIT auditorium, photos courtesy of blogger brownoski) or write up your thoughts after the fact while your impression is still fresh in your mind.

2) Surroundings - In addition to the campus itself, you’ll want to allow yourself some time to ask about and explore the larger city, town or rural location. Where do students live, eat and socialize? What is the cost of living? How do they get from place to place (parking or public transit may be an issue)? Are you interested in an active night life, or a wholesome place to raise a family? While considerations of academics and post-graduation career prospects generally take priority, you will be spending two years of your life in business school and these more subtle factors can often tip the balance in favor of a certain program when all other elements are more or less equal.

3) Atmosphere - Along with the campus and its location comes a certain culture or climate. Are students generally competitive or collaborative? Do students tend to socialize before or after class, or do they go their separate ways? How closely knit are learning teams, sections, clusters and cohorts, and what are the relationships among them? How strong are the bonds among classmates, and the ties between past and present students? This questions point to the often elusive issue of “fit.” The pervasive atmosphere that informs interactions among your peers will undoubtedly make a significant impact on your business school experience, so it’s important to get a sense of this by speaking with current students and/or visiting the school.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

UVA’s Darden School of Business Makes Sustainability Push

In a blog post yesterday we described a new business incubator at UNC Kenan-Flagler committed to promoting environmental and socially sustainable entrepreneurship. Of course, Kenan-Flagler is not alone in addressing issues of sustainability. In his own blog post yesterday evening, Dean Robert Bruner of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia mapped out the ways in which he hopes to lead his school toward greater environmental responsibility.

“Our initiative has two goals: By 2020, the Darden Enterprise will achieve carbon and waste neutrality; and by 2013,
Darden will rank among the b-school thought leaders on sustainability,” Bruner wrote.

Ambitious goals, yes. “But our assessment of the urgency and the opportunity to serve the business profession compels us to set these targets,” Bruner continued.

As part of its new sustainability initiative, Darden has integrated the subject into the curriculum and is writing new cases, bringing expert speakers to the school and working to make the campus green.

In an address last week as part of the closing event of Darden’s Net Impact Week, Bruner shared news of two recent hires, also part of the school’s commitment to sustainability. Erika Herz will serve as manager of sustainability programs, and Mike Lenox will be the new executive director of the Batten Institute, Darden’s center for entrepreneurship and innovation. Both bring considerable experience in the field.

Bruner doesn’t accept the beliefs that business executives are indifferent to environmental issues, that consumers won’t pay for better environmental practices and that investors won’t accept a lower rate of return for less intrusive technologies and practices. “We should find means of harnessing the dynamism of capitalism and free markets in the service of environmental sustainability,” he wrote.

Business schools have their own part to play, he continued. “The role for business schools should be to identify best practices of invention and implementation of new products and practices,” he wrote.

Already, some Darden students are taking action. This week, a team led by Darden students Manoj Sinha and Chip Ransler won first prize in the University of Texas at Austin RGK Center Social Innovation Competition for their company Husk Power Systems, which provides power to rural Indians by converting rice husks into electricity. 

The new sustainability initiative is aimed at fostering even more of this type of innovation among students and faculty alike.

To learn more about sustainability at Darden, click here. 

Which School Wednesdays: YouTube Offers New Perspective on MBA Programs

Welcome to this season’s first edition of Which School Wednesdays, a column meant to highlight online content that may help candidates weigh their tough decisions in selecting MBA programs. With looming deposit deadlines, MBA candidates admitted to more than one school are running out of time to settle on their premier program. While most applicants have already considered qualities such as size, location, teaching methods, etc., the Clear Admit team has decided to take an unconventional look at potentially overlooked characteristics of the leading programs via a selection of student-produced videos.  With the help of YouTube, applicants across the globe can peer into student life at any number of leading programs….

Our journey through “MBAs’ Funniest Home Videos” starts in Chicago.  When choosing between offers, it may help to understand the admissions process from the other side of the acceptance letters, e.g. the admissions committee. For insight into admissions decisions and financial aid, ‘Sandy G’ (who bears a striking resemblance to Ali G) sat down with Chicago GSB’s Associate Dean of Student Recruitment and Admissions, Rose Martinelli, and Financial Aid Director, Priscilla Parker.  Here is the resulting video.

Visiting a school may also help candidates to tip the scales. While admit weekends provide previews of business school life, however, many applicants may be left wondering about campus culture once the bridge from ‘prospect’ to ’student’ is finally crossed. For a better sense of campus life, be sure to check the following videos:

1. 1. CBS 911! - From Uris Hall to Watson Library, this video offers a ’secure’ tour of Columbia Business School.
2. 2. Vanday Partay - Covering fashion sense and family ties, Duke/Fuqua students sing their love of Tennessee rivals, Vanderbilt/Owen MBAs.
3. 3. Wharton First Year / Second Year Learning Team - For those wondering what a team setting has in store, a few Wharton students share their firsthand experiences.

Though spring offers warm weather, there may still be some ice to break over one’s admit weekends. For pointers on approaching your fellow admits, check out a few Stanford students’ take on these events. Although interview season is winding down, some tips offered in this mock interview can still apply when sharing one’s background with future classmates. When all else fails, the common MBA topic of career goals may save a stale conversation and prospects can take a crooning cue from Columbia Business School’s Dean Hubbard.

That wraps up this week’s installment of Which School Wednesdays! As always, we encourage those who have made up their mind to contribute to the School Choices section of the Wiki - simply create an account or send your thoughts to wiki@clearadmit.com. Best of luck and happy deliberating!

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Sustainable Business Incubator Debuts at UNC Kenan-Flagler

The Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last week launched a business accelerator geared toward speeding the growth of firms pledged toward meeting environmental and social objectives. The business incubator is believed to be the first of its kind.

The UNC Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship (BASE), created by Kenan-Flagler’s Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE), is designed to help bring entrepreneurs together with resources – ranging from industry experts to capital – that are focused on sustainability and can help turn their ideas into viable businesses. 

“BASE will benefit entrepreneurs, UNC and the wider community alike,” Katie Kross, CSE executive director, said in a statement announcing the incubator’s launch.

The incubator will help minimize costs and inject expertise in the startup phase, increasing entrepreneurs’ chances of long-term success, according to Kross. UNC students, meanwhile, will benefit from interdisciplinary experiential learning focused on integrating environmental and social considerations into all aspects of business. In these and other ways, BASE will raise the visibility of sustainable issues, benefiting society as a whole, she continued.

Currently in its pilot phase, BASE is working with seven early-stage sustainable businesses based in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Triangle. They include

• CaraGreen, a distributor of environmentally sustainable building materials
• Counter Culture Coffee, a fair trade micro-roasting coffee company
• North Carolina Choices, a provider of sustainably and locally produced meat and poultry
• PVee, a provider of large-scale turnkey solar energy solutions
• Trinity Design/Build, a provider of sustainable architectural design, building and preservation services
• WaterPLUS, a developer of a water purification device for use in the developing world
• Zebra Crossings, an online fair trade wedding boutique

The entrepreneurs involved in these businesses will have BASE advisory board members as their mentors. They also will participate in networking events, training and workshops; join a network of other sustainable entrepreneurs; and gain access to funding opportunities and other resources. 

The pilot phase will run through September 2008, at which point BASE will enter its full-scale phase. This phase will include a physical incubator with room for 10 businesses.

“BASE is the right idea at the right time,” said advisory board member John Hardin, deputy director and chief policy analyst for the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Office of Science and Technology, in a statement. “By drawing on the expertise of its advisory board and aggregating and connecting key resources, BASE gives businesses the support they need to address the triple bottom line” of financial profitability, social equity and environmental sustainability, he continued.

To learn more about BASE, click here.

INSEAD Deadlines for 2008-2009 - September and January Intakes

While INSEAD still has a few deadlines on the horizon for January 2009 intake, deadlines are now available for applicants targeting INSEAD’s September 2009, as well as January 2010, intake.

Deadlines for September 2009 Intake
Round One
Application Deadline: October 1st, 2008
Interview Notification By: November 7th, 2008
Final Decision: December 19th, 2008

Round Two
Application Deadline: November 26th, 2008
Interview Notification By: January 16th, 2009
Final Decision: March 6th, 2009

Round Three
Application Deadline: February 11th, 2009
Interview Notification By: March 20th, 2009
Final Decision: May 7th, 2009

Round Four
Application Deadline: April 1st, 2009
Interview Notification By: May 15th, 2009
Final Decision: June 19th, 2009

Deadlines for January 2010 Intake
Round One
Application Deadline: March 11th, 2009
Interview Notification By: April 30th, 2009
Final Decision: June 5th, 2009

Round Two
Application Deadline: May 27th, 2009
Interview Notification By: July 3rd, 2009
Final Decision: September 4th, 2009

Round Three
Application Deadline: July 22nd, 2009
Interview Notification By: August 28th, 2009
Final Decision: October 9th, 2009

A look at the online application, updated February 4th of this year, suggests that the school will be keeping its tried and true essay questions for the next wave of fall applicants:

Job Essays
1. Please give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved. (250 words)

2. Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)

Personal Essays
1. Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)

2. Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)

3. Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)

4. Discuss your career goals. What skills do you expect to gain from studying at INSEAD and how will they contribute to your professional career. (500 words approx.)

5. Please choose one of the following two essay topics:
a) Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.), or
b) What would you say to a foreigner moving to your home country? (250 words approx.)

6. Is there anything that you have not mentioned in the above essays that you would like the Admissions Committee to know? (200 words approx.) This essay is optional.

7. In case of reapplication, please use this page. Your essay should state any new aspects of professional, international, academic, or personal development since your last application. We would also like you to explain your motivation for re-applying to INSEAD. This essay should not exceed 400 words.

Trivia Tuesday: Honor Codes at Tuck, Yale SOM and Duke/Fuqua

Business ethics have been front page news for much of this decade. One way that business schools build ethical standards into their programs is through adopting school-wide honor codes that provide guidelines for student behavior. Although many schools have such codes, today we’ll examine the approaches taken by Tuck, Yale SOM, and Duke/Fuqua.

At Tuck, all students agree to abide by an Academic Honor Principle that emphasizes honesty and integrity both inside and outside the classroom. Closed-book mid-term and final exams are often unproctored or given as take-home tests, and students are trusted to comply with any restrictions on time or resources. The honor code is governed by a student judicial board; faculty and administrators intervene only when students are unable to resolve a matter of academic integrity.

Meanwhile, the Yale SOM upholds a formal honor code that guides the conduct of students, faculty and staff. While its implications extend into the social realm, it is most explicit about students’ conduct in academics and recruiting. In the academic realm, professors are expected to provide clear guidelines regarding assignment requirements and appropriate collaboration, and in turn, students must work fairly within groups and seek clarification from their professor if in doubt about the instructions. With respect to recruiting, students must adhere to the Career Development Office’s standards when attending interviews and responding to offers, as well as uphold a high level of professional behavior in all recruiting activities.

Yale students report that the Honor Code is heavily emphasized during pre-term, and that it permeates campus life thereafter. In routine academic life, students check themselves, both when working individually and in groups, to ensure that they are following the Honor Code, and many report that they enjoy having a high community standard to live up to and uphold. The administration takes the rare occurrences of academic or professional violations very seriously; alleged offenders must answer to a faculty and student committee that decides whether to excuse the accused party or recommend probation, suspension or even expulsion.

At Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, students operate under both Duke University’s expectation of high standards of scholarship and conduct and the Honor Code of the Fuqua School of Business. Violations of the Honor Code include lying, cheating, stealing, or failing to report one of the previously mentioned offenses, and disciplinary action may include suspension or expulsion. The Fuqua Honor Code became front-page news at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year when over 30 first-year students were found guilty of violating the Honor Code by improperly collaborating on a take-home test and nine of these students were recommended for expulsion. Although the story generated a great deal of public commentary on the questionable ethics of business school students, Fuqua’s administration and many of its students see the case as a sign of the school’s commitment to upholding high ethical standards within the community, regardless of the publicity generated.

For more information on schools’ honor codes, be sure to speak with current students or check out the Academics section of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Monday, May 05, 2008

Wharton School of Business, INSEAD Renew Alliance for Four More Years

The deans of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and INSEAD announced last week that the two schools have renewed their partnership – initially launched in 2001 – for another four years. The alliance brings together the resources of two of the world’s top management education programs to offer students quality business education and research opportunities across four campuses.

Through collaborative projects at Wharton’s U.S. campuses in Philadelphia and San Francisco and INSEAD’s campuses in Fontainebleau, France, and Singapore, the two schools offer a truly global approach to management education and combine the intellectual capital of more than 400 resident faculty.

Joint endeavors include an MBA student exchange, a faculty exchange and joint research and teaching projects through the Center for Global Research and Education. In addition, the alliance allows for PhD collaboration, co-branded executive education courses and continuing joint alumni initiatives.

 “The alliance has given our students wonderful opportunities to study within a multinational framework,” said Thomas Robertson, dean of the Wharton School, in a statement.

Indeed, it is the continued success of the alliance that prompted its renewal. Since its launch seven years ago, more than 800 MBA students have participated in the INSEAD-Wharton exchange, taking advantage of an opportunity to study across three continents, and more than 750 executives have taken part in a range of co-branded executive education programs. These programs, including courses such as “Strategic R&D Management” and “Leading an Effective Sales Force,” are delivered at all campuses and taught by faculty members from both schools.

“INSEAD’s continued partnership with Wharton underscores the value we place on developing transcultural leaders,” said J. Frank Brown, dean of INSEAD, in a statement. “It is essential for leaders in business and beyond to gain international experience and an understanding of different cultures,” he continued.

Expanded research opportunities also have been a core component of the alliance, as has development of the large, joint alumni communities of the two schools. The INSEAD-Wharton Center for Global Research and Education, jointly-funded and governed by a joint R&D committee, promotes faculty exchange, large-scale global research projects and teaching innovations. And alumni associations at each school regularly provide opportunities to connect the 82,000 Wharton alumni in 148 countries with the 37,000 INSEAD alumni in 150 countries.

Even more extensive faculty research collaboration and deepened alumni relations will be a major focus in the alliance’s next four years. Some of the planned initiatives include an agreement for direct distribution of INSEAD teaching cases to Wharton and an upcoming INSEAD-Wharton research conference on leadership, to be held at INSEAD on June 19-21.

More information about the alliance can be found in each the INSEAD and Wharton websites.

Campus Chronicles: NYU Stern and MIT Sloan

As the calendar takes another step closer to summer, many students are reminiscing about lessons learned over Spring Break.

At NYU, the Stern Opportunity reports that during this past Spring Break, the newly formed Stern in Africa organization hosted its first trek to beautiful Tanzania. Of course, safaris are the most popular African holiday activity, and Stern students were not disappointed during their trip. The group spotted lions, elephants, hippos, giraffes, impalas, baboons, buffalos and zebras, to name just a few. Students were also able to do some work during the trip, visiting the Dar Es Salaam microfinance institution, which services approximately 1,600 clients and has an astonishing repayment rate of 99.3%. Typical businesses include food vending, used clothing sales, charcoal sales, poultry keeping and wholesaling. These loans help the entrepreneurs grow their business over time and improve their housing conditions, pay their children’s school fees, provide employment for their neighbors, and better their families’ nutrition. The Tanzania trip sparked an interest in microfinance for among the NYU Stern students attending. Discussion of the microfinance institution continued back onto campus, where several attendees are working on a case study that will help teach other MBA students about microfinance.

Another intrepid group of Stern students participated in the 2008 SEA Chile Trek, the first Social Enterprise Association (SEA) spring break trip. Upon arrival at Santiago International Airport, some Stern SEA members were quickly made acquainted with the “brutal Bachelette regime” when Chilean customs officials seized a bag of mixed fruit, two individual tangelos, and an unopened package of trail mix from three offenders. After enduring a 45-minute interrogation, paying the $87 fine, and promising to pay attention to restrictions next time, the unwitting criminals rejoined the rest of the group to board the bus to the hotel and begin the real adventure.

Amidst excellent cuisine, hair raising bus rides, horseback riding and attending a local game of futbol, the group also managed to begin an exploration of business opportunities in Chile. They met the executive director of a social enterprise development organization, and learned about its model for selection, support and scale. After visiting several of these social enterprises, the group took part in the first of its Wine/Beer Tours (a universal highlight of the trip to Chile) to hear about the exporting and marketing strategy of a major international wine distributor. The next day the group explored microfinance with an NGO that provides micro credits to support the entrepreneurial initiatives of Chile’s most impoverished people, and visited a children’s program where one volunteer exhumed a dead cat from the sandbox while others gave the program director advise on fundraising. A trip to Kross Brewery and a meeting with the founding partner resulted in uncovering the little known business strategy that the best way to start a career in Chile is to meet the right woman.

Also reminiscing about Spring Break,MIT Sloan’s Fifteen reports on the 200 Sloan students who explored Japan during the break. The ten day trip covered areas around Kyoto and Tokyo, with visits to the cities bridged by a day of partying and resting at the hot spring spa in Hakone. On the first full day of the trip, the group visited the Sumo tournament in Namba, Osaka. In addition to exploring the social side of Japan, Sloanies toured a Toyota factory where they experienced first-hand lessons from Operations class in the form of slightly eerie robot arms. They also visited companies such as Shiseido, Shinsei Bank, Sony Computer Entertainment, Konami, Seven Eleven Japan, Sony, and NTT Docomo.

Many Sloan students had expressed doubt that such a huge student led trip would be successful. To make this trek for 200 possible, fifteen student organizers worked from late October on, including helping to “herd” the group in Japan. Initially a skeptic of the trek, one ‘08 student said the following: “To put it plainly, I left for Japan feeling that the organizers had bitten off more than they could chew, and that this would be a disaster. . .the organizers proceeded to prove me wrong by handling 200+ (semi-conscious, sometimes childish, often misbehaving, almost always drunk) Sloanies with a ridiculously high degree of patience, resilience and enthusiasm to show us their country through a haze of sake and sushi. So in short, I had a fantastic time. . .”

Returning back to the states on a more work-intensive note, the Fifteen also reports that there is a high level of excitement about the 2008 installment of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. It reached record proportions last month with an all-time-high 232 teams entering the MIT $100K Business Plan Contest to vie for over $400,000 in cash prizes. This year, the competition was split into seven separate tracks, each representing a specific industry in which budding MIT entrepreneurs have shown particular interest. The 50 semi-finalist teams are now working with their mentors to fine-tune their business plans in hopes of winning both their track and the $100,000 grand prize, which will be announced on May 14th.

Friday, May 02, 2008

MIT Sloan Deadlines 2008-2009

MIT Sloan has gotten a jump on the upcoming admissions season by publishing their deadlines for the 2008-2009 application year. Once again, the school stands out from other leading MBA programs by offering only two rounds of deadlines as opposed to the usual three. Both rounds fall around the same dates as last year.

Round 1
Application Received by: October 28th, 2008
Decisions Released on: February 2nd, 2009

Round 2
Application Received by: January 13th, 2009
Decisions Released on: April 6th, 2009

Re-applicants must submit their materials by the Round 1 deadline. Despite Sloan’s East Coast location, all application materials, which will be available in July 2008, are due by noon Pacific Standard Time.

Sustainability Projects Receive $2 Million Boost at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

Clamoring to help humans live in a more sustainable way, masters and doctoral students from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business flooded the new Sustainable Products and Solutions (SPS) Program with their proposals. Twenty-three projects have been granted a total of $2 million in this, the program’s first year.

The SPS program, which is based at the Haas School’s Center for Responsible Business, was developed in partnership with the College of Chemistry to administer and grow a $10 million, five-year gift from the Dow Chemical Co. Foundation to allow students and faculty to study and conduct research around the issue of sustainability.

Competition for funding was fierce. Students submitted proposals that together sought three times the available total funds for this year.

Among the projects that won funding was a new fellowship for Berkeley MBA students to help members of the other winning programs develop viable business plans to bring their products to market. In support of this MBA fellowship program, a new course will be created in the spring, taught by Haas Associate Professor Catherine Wolfram and Adjunct Professor Andrew Issacs, the co-executive directors of the Center for Energy and Environmental Innovation.

Other winning projects ranged from cost-effective water purification technologies to renewable fuels. Three projects focus on distributing efficient cook stoves – developed at Berkeley – in China, Senegal and Darfur, where they will decrease the time women and children must spend gathering firewood in dangerous areas.

“This program gives us the opportunity to fund seminars, student competitions, research, internships, field projects and fellowships that will help graduate students bridge research, theory and practice in sustainability,” Kellie McElhaney, executive director of the Center for Responsible Business and program director for the SPS Program, said in a statement announcing the grant awards.

To qualify for funding, proposals had to be interdisciplinary, account for all aspects of the life cycle of the product or solution and help address global sustainability challenges. Students from more than a dozen schools and departments submitted proposals. The 23 winners received grants ranging from $4,000 to $150,000 each.

Dow, whose contribution made the grants possible, was not involved in the SPS Program’s decision-making and does not have any rights to the research conducted through the program’s projects. Funding decisions were made by a steering committee of faculty across campus, and all research funded by the program will be the property of the University of California at Berkeley.

To learn more about the SPS Program or this year’s winning proposals, click here.

Columbia’s Accelerated January Term Essays and Deadlines 2009

While Columbia Business School’s application for September 2008 closed just a few weeks ago, the school has already posted the application for the 2009 Accelerated January Program, otherwise known as J-Term. Before listing the essays, however, let’s take a look at the deadlines for the upcoming admissions season.

January 2009 Accelerated Program
Application Review Period Began: April 30th, 2008
Decision Period: Within 8 weeks
Application Deadline: October 8th, 2008

September 2009 Early Decision
Application Review Period Begins: August 13th, 2008
Decision Period: Within 10 weeks
Application Deadline: October 8th, 2008

September 2009 Regular Decision deadlines are pending, so be sure to check back for the latest dates.

J-Term Application Essays

Essay 1 (Required): What are your short-term and long-term post-MBA goals? How will Columbia Business School help you achieve these goals? (Recommended 750 word limit)

Essay 2 (Required): Master Classes are the epitome of bridging the gap between theory and practice at Columbia Business School. View link below. Please provide an example from your own life in which practical experience taught you more than theory alone. (Recommended 500 word limit)

1. View with Real Player: http://merlin.gsb.columbia.edu:8080/ramgen/video1/faculty/MasterClass-promo.rm
2. View via Google: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4698876883776961370&hl=en

Essay 3 (Required): Please provide an example of a team failure of which you’ve been a part. If given a second chance, what would you do differently? (Recommended 500 word limit)

Essay 4 (Required): Describe for us your greatest passion in life. (Recommended 250 word limit)

Essay 5 (Optional): Is there any further information that you wish to provide to the Admissions Committee? (Please use this space to provide an explanation of any areas of concern in your academic record or your personal history.)

Fridays From the Frontline

Welcome to another Fridays From the Frontline, Clear Admit’s weekly reprise of the blogging community’s biggest hits. Applicants sang a cash-conscious tune this week, while current students conveyed a more carefree carol. Let’s hear what they said without skipping a beat…

Tinydancer spent some lucrative time auctioning off her possessions online in an effort to offset the iPhone purchase she’s anticipating… Seeing as she’s already halfway there, maybe she should consider the same approach to footing next year’s tuition bill! Power Leveler could use an eBay infusion herself; she bemoaned the devaluing dollar while contemplating her impending 50,000 Euro tuition at INSEAD (not to mention living expenses!). On the other hand, B-School Bound’s been seeing dollar signs right around the corner for quite some time now. This week he finally bid the applicant community adieu to focus on his startup. Also turning the page this week was Mbarunnergirl, who celebrated pulling the plug on her job in preparation for full-time employment at Columbia Business School come fall (with some full-time vacationing in between). And then there was BoB diva July Dream, who offered an acceptance speech worthy of the Grammy’s upon claiming the coveted Best Applicant Blogger distinction.

On camups, Anand took a time-out in the last week of his first year to break down Darden’s third and fourth quarters and consider the different ways students prioritize within their newly flexible schedules. Speaking of which, Maybe MBA finally celebrated a moment to herself when karmic intervention enticed her Chicago GSB teammates to shoulder their share of the group work load. Also breaking with tradition, Necromonger took some artistic license (of a non-cartoon nature) with his b-school blog, reporting on an enriching day at the Musee du Louvre instead of the INSEAD usual. Mandy was feeling pretty enriched herself, crediting Darden’s multicultural class for forever broadening her perspective, but capping of her post with a poetic reminder that insists the East-West clash still persists. Doing his part to bridge that divide, Iday emerged from a trying internship search, accepting a plum offer from a NYC firm that aids entrepreneurs in emerging economies.

Having been knee deep in his own unconventional job search, this week Stern’s Rubeo Boy found himself getting more bites than a professional fisherman in a well-stocked lake! From sports to publishing to high-tech, his methods for reeling ‘em in started paying off big time. John wasn’t worried about jobs this week though, although he did continue in the tradition of dedicating his blog to the edification of his peers – by plugging Columbia Business School’s upcoming Disorientation Week! Classmate Marina joined him in letting the good times roll, as they wistfully do in the latest CBS Follies video she posted.That’s all for now folks! Thanks for tuning into our Friday feature! See you next week for a repeat performance…

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Harvard Business School Names Business Plan Contest Winners

Harvard Business School (HBS) this week named the winners of its 12th annual Business Plan Contest, winnowing down an initial roster of 70 student teams to award first place cash prizes in each the traditional for-profit and social enterprise tracks.

Second-year Harvard MBA student Tal Riesenfeld was part of the five-member team that took the top prize in the for-profit track with its business plan for EyeViewDigital.com, a startup that fosters video communication between businesses and their employees and/or customers.

With several projects already underway, the team helps businesses in the United States, Israel and Australia implement cutting-edge online video tutorials both to provide employee training and to establish interactive video help centers that reduce customer support costs and increase website usability and conversion rates. “Help your customers help themselves,” reads the EyeViewDigital.com website.

Taking first place in the social enterprise track, meanwhile, was Diagnostics-For-All, a seven-member team with a plan for a not-for-profit diagnostics company providing a new generation of point-of-care tools to healthcare agencies and commercial organizations. HBS team members included second-year students Jon Puz and Gilbert Tang and HBS first-year student Krishna Yeshwant. The tools the team developed are designed to address the diagnostic and clinical management needs of the global medical community.

“It’s a thrill to hear about these interesting ideas and the development of these ideas into a business,” HBS Dean Jay Light said in a statement. “I know of no better demonstration than this of the kinds of things our students can do beyond the classroom to help them develop all sorts of important skills – from putting together a team to creating an innovative plan for a new venture,” he continued.

Continuing the HBS Entrepreneurship Legacy
HBS prides itself on its entrepreneurship program, which is recognized by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship as the best in the country. HBS offered the nation’s first business school course in entrepreneurship in 1947, and today, the 30+ faculty members of the school’s Entrepreneurial Management Unit teach a required course to some 900 students in the first year of the MBA program in addition to a range of electives to second-year students.

The school’s entrepreneurial focus was enhanced even further in 2003 when venture capitalist Arthur Rock (MBA ‘51) donated $25 million to HBS to support the entrepreneurship faculty and their research, fellowships for MBA and doctoral students, symposia and conferences, and new outreach efforts around entrepreneurship. Today, the Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship funds the student-run HBS Business Plan Competition, in addition to several other special programs.

First-place teams in this year’s Business Plan Competition, which was co-sponsored by the HBS Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise Clubs, each received $10,000 in cash and $10,000 in in-kind legal and accounting services. Five runner-up teams were also named, four in the traditional track and one in the social enterprise track. These teams each received $5,000 in cash and $5,000 in services.

To learn more about the HBS Business Plan Competition or entrepreneurship at HBS, click here.

Trivia Thursday: MBA and Master’s Joint Degree Programs

Due to this week’s announcement of the Best of Blogging winners, we’re offering a special Thursday edition of Trivia Tuesday. Today we’ll consider the options available to students interested in complementing their MBA studies with an advanced degree in another academic area. Often referred to as either joint or dual degrees, most business schools partner with other graduate programs at their home universities to offer one or more of these joint study options. Dual degree programs differ from the certificate programs we’ve discussed in other Trivia Tuesday columns in that students earn two degrees - often an MBA and a Master’s. Although studying for a dual degree typically takes 3-5 years instead of the normal two years of the MBA, it is almost always faster than completing the degrees separately.

Let’s take a look at a few of the options for students seeking a Master’s degree in conjunction with their MBA, as well as the admissions requirements governing these degrees.

Like most leading MBA programs, Columbia Business School offers dual degree programs through which students earn another degree concurrently with their MBA (e.g., Master’s in International and Public Affairs, Master’s in Social Services). Applicants are required to apply to and receive admission to both programs and may apply to both programs simultaneously or to the second program if they are less than halfway through their studies at the first school.

Students in a dual degree program at Columbia register at one school per term and may take courses in either program in each term, as long as they meet each school’s course, residence, and sequencing requirements. CBS recommends that candidates complete the first two terms of the MBA program consecutively to maintain the integrity and full benefits of the first-year core curriculum and cluster system.

Similar systems are in place at Chicago, which offers two joint MBA/MA programs, at HBS, which offers concurrent degrees with the Kennedy School of Government, and at Stanford, where there are joint MBA/MA options. A few business schools offer slightly different options for students interested in joint degree study. For instance, Kellogg does not offer a set list of MBA/MA programs, instead opting to allow students to create their own joint program through application to their two programs of interest. Meanwhile, although Tuck and Wharton offer dual degrees on their own campuses, each also teams up with other universities (including Tufts, the Kennedy School, and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies) to offer a more extensive list of dual degree programs.

While dual degree students make up a relatively small percentage of the overall MBA population, some admissions officers report that combination degrees are becoming increasingly popular as students seek to customize their educations and take advantage of the opportunity to earn two degrees in less time, and for less money, than if they pursued separate programs. For MBA applicants interested in applying their business education to fields such as public policy, education, social work, the environment, public health, international policy or another specialized field, a joint degree program can offer both the area expertise and business knowledge needed for a successful career.

To learn more about MBA/MA dual degree options, be sure to check out the business schools’ websites or the Dual Degrees section of the Clear Admit School Guides!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Kellogg School of Management Hosts Women’s Leadership Workshop

The Kellogg School of Management this past weekend hosted its second annual Women’s Leadership Workshop, targeting high-potential women who might not otherwise be considering an MBA as part of their traditional career path. Presented by the Women’s Business Association and Kellogg Admissions, the two-day event drew 100 attendees averaging three to six years of work experience in a variety of industries.

“We hope to build on the success of last year and help you assess who you are as leaders through experiential learning opportunities,” said event co-chair Raquel Lachman, Kellogg ’08, in a statement. This year’s conference extended last year’s theme, “Unlock your pote